Fifth graders in Ms. Haislip’s class had a great year this year and wanted to remember it by creating a memory wall. There are numerous web tools you could use for a project like this, but today we used DesignCap. It’s a free resource that doesn’t require a sign-in, so it’s quick and easy to use, plus, it has many great features that I’ll describe below. In preparation for this project, Ms. Haislip uploaded photos from the school year to a Google folder and shared the link with her students on Schoology. Each student downloaded the pictures they wanted to use, then uploaded them to DesignCap using the Photo > Add Photo link. Next, they dragged the photos to the poster, rotating and resizing them until they were arranged the way they wanted. We used the Background tool to design a colorful background with gradients, and I showed them how to use the Text tool to add a title and captions to each photo. The text tool on DesignCap is quite robust, providing options for font, fill color, outline color, glow color, and transparency! The students practiced typing complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation for their photo captions (which is still a challenge, even for fifth graders). When we were finished, we clicked the Save button and selected the medium size. DesignCap projects can be saved in a variety of sizes up to the very generous XLarge size of 2478 x 3506 pixels. Finally, we uploaded our files to Schoology so we could enjoy viewing each others’ memory walls. You can take a look at them all here.
5th Grade Memory Walls
5th Grade Student-Created Review Activities
Fifth graders at Varina Elementary have been reviewing science SOLs for the year. Today, students in Ms. Messer’s and Mr. Williams’ classes used Wick to create interactive review questions. First, we brainstormed a list of topics they have studied this year: weather, rocks, cells, oceans, planets, sound, light, force, and elements. Next, students chose a topic and developed a good, thoughtful question with plausible answer choices. We went to Wick, added a background color, and typed our question and answers with the text tool. I showed them how to change the font, size, and color of the text using the toolbar on the right. We used the shapes tool to draw circles next to each answer choice and turned them into clickable buttons with the “Create Button” tool (pointing finger icon). Then, we used the paint tools to draw a character who would respond to the correct or incorrect answer. In order to create the code, the character had to be a named group, so we highlighted all its parts and clicked the “Group Objects” button. Beside “Name” in the Group tool bar, we gave it a name (like “boy” or “girl”). Then we double clicked the character and clicked the “Clone Frame” button to make two copies of it. Frame 2 represented the correct answer, so we gave our character a smile. Frame 3 represented the incorrect answer, so we gave our character a frown. Now we could add code to the buttons. Wick makes coding easy by including code snippets in the library. For the correct button, we used this code (changing the name boy to whatever the group was called):
function mousePressed() {
boy.gotoAndStop(2)
}
For the incorrect button, we used the same code, but just changed the code to gotoAndStop(3) so it went to Frame 3 of the character. We clicked “Run” to test our activity. If everything worked, we exported it as an HTML file and shared it on Schoology for our classmates to try. You can see all their questions here.
2nd Grade Coding Magnets
Second graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about magnets and magnetism (SOL2.2), so today, students in Ms. Edmonds’ class used Wick to code a magnets activity. First, I showed them a finished sample so they could see what they would be creating. Basically, they will have a person, a magnet, and two objects–one that’s magnetic and one that’s nonmagnetic. Then, they will use code to make the person smile when the user clicks on the magnetic object and frown when the user clicks on the nonmagnetic object. We reviewed different objects that were magnetic and nonmagnetic, then we got started. The students used the drawing tools to draw a person, a magnet, and two objects. I showed them how to change the objects into buttons (click the finger icon) and we added some code to the buttons. I like how Wick uses real code, but they keep it simple by including a code library that students can choose from. So instead of typing the code, they just click it. Our code for the buttons read: mousePressed gotoAndStop(2) for the magnetic object and mousePressed gotoAndStop(3) for the nonmagnetic object. Next, we duplicated Frame 1 (right click on it) and changed the face in Frame 2 to be smiling. We did the same thing for Frame 3, but changed the face to be frowning. Finally, we tested our code to be sure it worked and clicked File>Export HTML. That’s it! They just created their own interactive magnets website, which is really impressive for 2nd graders! You can see all of their activities here.
2nd Grade Coding Magnets
Second graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about magnets and magnetism (SOL2.2), so today, students in Ms. Edmonds’ class used Wick to code a magnets activity. First, I showed them a finished sample so they could see what they would be creating. Basically, they will have a person, a magnet, and two objects–one that’s magnetic and one that’s nonmagnetic. Then, they will use code to make the person smile when the user clicks on the magnetic object and frown when the user clicks on the nonmagnetic object. We reviewed different objects that were magnetic and nonmagnetic, then we got started. The students used the drawing tools to draw a person, a magnet, and two objects. I showed them how to change the objects into buttons (click the finger icon) and we added some code to the buttons. I like how Wick uses real code, but they keep it simple by including a code library that students can choose from. So instead of typing the code, they just click it. Our code for the buttons read: mousePressed gotoAndStop(2) for the magnetic object and mousePressed gotoAndStop(3) for the nonmagnetic object. Next, we duplicated Frame 1 (right click on it) and changed the face in Frame 2 to be smiling. We did the same thing for Frame 3, but changed the face to be frowning. Finally, we tested our code to be sure it worked and clicked File>Export HTML. That’s it! They just created their own interactive magnets website, which is really impressive for 2nd graders! You can see all of their activities here.
3rd Grade Animated Food Chain Relationships
Third graders at Holladay have been learning about the relationships among organisms in aquatic and terrestrial food chains (SOL3.5), so today, students in Ms. Haley’s class created animations with Loopy to illustrate some of those relationships. First, we reviewed the different ecosystems: forest, desert, arctic, freshwater, ocean, etc. Then, students chose one ecosystem and typed the name of it in Loopy using the Text tool. Next, they used the pencil tool to draw a circle to represent a plant. If students didn’t know a plant that lived in their ecosystem, I showed them how to ask Google using the microphone. Next, students added an animal that eats that plant. Again, they could use Google for research. A great feature of Loopy is that it can show positive or negative relationships with arrows. We drew an arrow from the plant to the animal and discussed whether it should be positive or negative. It’s positive because more plants would mean more animals since they have a bigger food source. Then, we drew another arrow from the animal to the plant and made it negative (click the box in the upper right corner). It’s negative because more animals would mean less plants since they eat them. Students could continue adding animals to their web and using arrows to show the relationships between them. Finally, we pressed play and explored what happens when we change the population of each organism (by pressing the up or down arrows). We saved our animations as weblinks and shortened them with bitly. You can see them all here.
3rd Grade Animated Food Chain Relationships
Third graders at Holladay have been learning about the relationships among organisms in aquatic and terrestrial food chains (SOL3.5), so today, students in Ms. Haley’s class created animations with Loopy to illustrate some of those relationships. First, we reviewed the different ecosystems: forest, desert, arctic, freshwater, ocean, etc. Then, students chose one ecosystem and typed the name of it in Loopy using the Text tool. Next, they used the pencil tool to draw a circle to represent a plant. If students didn’t know a plant that lived in their ecosystem, I showed them how to ask Google using the microphone. Next, students added an animal that eats that plant. Again, they could use Google for research. A great feature of Loopy is that it can show positive or negative relationships with arrows. We drew an arrow from the plant to the animal and discussed whether it should be positive or negative. It’s positive because more plants would mean more animals since they have a bigger food source. Then, we drew another arrow from the animal to the plant and made it negative (click the box in the upper right corner). It’s negative because more animals would mean less plants since they eat them. Students could continue adding animals to their web and using arrows to show the relationships between them. Finally, we pressed play and explored what happens when we change the population of each organism (by pressing the up or down arrows). We saved our animations as weblinks and shortened them with bitly. You can see them all here.
Montrose Mobile Maker Space
Earlier this year, some the Elementary ITRTs set up stations and taught the students and teachers about a variety of technology options that they could check out to use in their classrooms.
Following our session, Janet Driver wrote a grant and was awarded a HEF grant to bring similar items to a Mobile Maker Space at Montrose. This week the 2nd grade students have been rotating through a variety of stations to practice with some of the new technology that is now available in the library.
Osmo Pizza Company
Students make pizzas for the customers that come into the restaurant.
They also give the customers change after they pay for their meal.
Osmo Coding
Osmo Tangrams
Sphero
Ozobots
Montrose Mobile Maker Space
Earlier this year, some the Elementary ITRTs set up stations and taught the students and teachers about a variety of technology options that they could check out to use in their classrooms.
Following our session, Janet Driver wrote a grant and was awarded a HEF grant to bring similar items to a Mobile Maker Space at Montrose. This week the 2nd grade students have been rotating through a variety of stations to practice with some of the new technology that is now available in the library.
Osmo Pizza Company
Students make pizzas for the customers that come into the restaurant.
They also give the customers change after they pay for their meal.
Osmo Coding
Osmo Tangrams
Sphero
Ozobots
Save the Date!!!!
Save the Date: August 14, 2018
“Dive into Deeper Learning” #DiveDeep18
Elementary Summer Instructional Technology Conference
Glen Allen High School
Join us for an exciting day of professional learning at “Dive into Deeper Learning,” our elementary summer conference presented by Instructional Technology. Discover fun ways to use technology effectively in your classroom while exploring Schoology, classroom device access, and tons more! Of course, there will be games, music, prizes, and food trucks! You don’t want to miss this! We will start collecting proposals for presenters soon! Mark your calendars now!
3rd Grade Coding Money and Change
Third graders at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about money and counting change up to five dollars (SOL3.8). Today students in Ms. Hunt’s class used a new coding program called Wick to create an interactive math problem about making change. First, I showed them a couple of examples so they could get an idea of what we were going to do (here and here). I pointed out that their projects could look very different, but they had to have three things: (1) an object to buy with a price under $5; (2) a person with a $5 bill; (3) a right and a wrong answer. To get the students started, I created a template with some money files that you can download here. The students downloaded my template from Schoology, started a new project in Wick, and uploaded the template (File > Open). Now, in the Assets Library on the right, they had some money images to use if they wanted. They illustrated their problem with the drawing tools and typed out the question and answers with the text tool. We created two more frames by copying the first one (right click > Clone frame) and made a few changes to show the correct answer (the person gets the object and is happy) and the incorrect answer (the object leaves and the person is sad). Finally, we added the code to the buttons so that they go to the correct frame. One of the things I really like about Wick is that is uses real code. So we added a stop() code to each frame and programmed the buttons to go to the correct frames gotoAndStop(2) or (3). Wick exports projects as HTML files so they play in any browser. You can see all their projects here.
